2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid drive review

November 10, 2013

Share

Facebook

Tweet

Pinterest

Email

What is it?

When Subaru lifted and snazzed up the Impreza five-door hatch to create the XV Crosstrek crossover for the 2013 model year, it must have seemed like just the right offroady-yet-earth-loving machine to receive the hybrid-electric treatment. For 2014, here comes the XV Crosstrek Hybrid, with a spare-tire well stuffed full of electrons, an electric motor built into its transmission, and claimed fuel economy that cracks the 30 mpg barrier.

The hybrid gets unique wheels and lights, but otherwise looks much the same as the regular XV Crosstrek. Photo by Murilee Martin

Externally, the XV Crosstrek Hybrid looks very similar to the straight-gasoline version; the wheels on the Hybrid are designed to reduce aerodynamic drag, the grille gets engine-temperature-controlled shutters for the same reason, the taillights get different LEDs, and so forth. An exclusive-to-the-Hybrid color known as "Plasma Green Pearl" will be available, and we hope that this paint's name is an homage to legendary EV-drag-racer Plasma Boy.

A dash-mounted LCD display keeps the driver up-to-date on the inner workings of the hybrid system and battery. Photo by Murilee Martin

What's it like to drive?

The 2.0 liter four-cylinder boxer engine gets a slight compression-ratio boost over last year's engine and puts out 148 hp and 145 lb-ft of torque on its own; the electric motor built into the Subaru Lineartronic CVT transmission adds 13.4 horses and 48 lb-ft to the total. It doesn't feel particularly quick off the line, but the added low-RPM assist of the electric motor helps a lot when it's most needed -- say, when you're hauling your mountain bikes up a steep fire road to your favorite Gold Country trailhead.

Photo by Murilee Martin

However, the November weather in Iceland, where our test drive took place, wasn't exactly what we'd been told to expect. Instead of doing the sort of driving your idealized XV Crosstrek Hybrid owner -- e.g., a 30-something office manager from suburban Denver who might crunch through a foot of snow on the way to the ski slopes -- might do, we ended up beating on our little Subaru like grizzled Wyoming-gas-field roughnecks in a primered-out IHC Scout. Thick snow, steep lava slopes, 75-mph gusts of volcanic-ash-laden wind howling straight off the North Atlantic, and huge ruts carved by preceding Land Cruisers with 38-inch tires resulted in a march-or-die situation when the whiteout descended in true Skaftáreldar fashion, many kilometers into the Icelandic outback. At that point, it was hour after hour of full-throttle, hybrid-battery-depleting, CVT-thrashing, snowbank-bashing, bump-stop-banging torture as we crashed through 2-foot snowdrifts (with just 8.7 inches of ground clearance, which is plenty by CUV standards) and forded icy streams with torrents of bow-wave water cascading over the hood.

The XV Crosstrek Hybrid looks good with the rear side glass blacked out from volcanic ash. Photo by Murilee Martin

The performance of the XV Crosstrek Hybrid was shockingly good throughout all of this, considering what we were asking of what's essentially a mildly off-road-ized commuter hatchback. With daylight fading fast and the wind getting worse, we had no choice but to push on. Ignoring the increasingly agitated warning messages about the ABS and traction-control systems from the multifunction display, we cranked up the appropriate Scandinavian black metal on the respectably loud sound system, dropped the CVT range into 1, and slithered up the next volcano. The hybrid system's batteries didn't last long under these conditions, but the gasoline engine alone was enough.

Sometimes even the XV needs a little help from a Land Rover. Photo by Murilee Martin

Yes, we got stuck a few times, when the ruts got too deep and the XV couldn't help but get hopelessly high-centered. Then the Land Rover got stuck. Then the tractor snowplow got stuck, at which point we felt like doomed characters in a Halldór Laxness novel. In the end, we made it, with the only car out of a dozen to falter being the one that lost a crank-position sensor due to a particularly brutal impact with a hidden lava-rock crevice. The lesson we learned from all this is that the XV Crosstrek Hybrid will laugh at the bad-road-conditions challenges put before it by 99 and many more nines percent of real-world American Subaru owners.

On paved roads, the XV Crosstrek Hybrid offers the same sort of competent-but-not-particularly-luxurious driving experience familiar to a generation of Subaru all-wheel-drive-commuter-car aficionados. The Hybrid gets more soundproofing than the regular XV, which we assume quiets down any hybrid drivetrain sounds.

Right out of the standard Subaru interior playbook. Photo by Murilee Martin

2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid

Do I want one?

Are you a Subaru fan who wants more green cred? The XV Crosstrek Hybrid might just be what you've been waiting for. You do have to deal with a couple of drawbacks that go with the Hybrid when compared with the standard XV; first, the hybrid system's batteries take the space once reserved for the spare wheel, which means you get a "tire repair kit" (essentially, a can of fix-a-flat) instead of a spare. Second, the higher engine compression ratio mandates the use of midgrade fuel. Hybrid-system-related hardware adds about 300 pounds, but the extra engine power keeps 0-60 times nearly identical to those of the nonhybrid XV Crosstrek.

The upholstery should be easy to clean when your Bernese mountain dog tracks in a few cubic feet of mud, and its general function-over-form layout is well-suited for what the marketing types call an "active lifestyle." Plus, unlike some other so-called "soft roaders," this little Subaru has proven it's got real off-road credibility.

We think Subaru badges look best when covered with ice and volcanic ash. Photo by Murilee Martin